Afghan Biographies

Baryal, Qari

Name

Baryal, Qari

Ethnic backgr.

Pashtun

Date of birth

Function/Grade

HIG Warlord Taliban

History and Biodata

3. Biodata:
Qari Baryal is a senior HIG commander one of the main Taliban leaders in Kapisa province where two french Reporters were kidnapped on December 30, 2009, and also seen as close to criminals. He has a brother named Ezmari. The Tag Ab Tagab valleye is Baryals primary area of operation. There have also been reports about occasional infightings between Baryal and the Taliban. He is a CJTF-82 Tier 3 High Value Individual, RTAF0532 and was attacked by US forces sereral times. In 2008 he was reported killed in an airstrike which was not confirmed. He again was reported killed in a Jan. 7 coalition airstrike in Kunar province leading a group of at least 25 fighters in and near the province's Pech Valley.

The Qari Baryal group has between 100 and 200 members and is very organised and has a good reputation among the Taliban, but sometimes they go against their ideals, such as taking hostages for ransom. At least two commanders in the Qari Baryal group, identified as brothers Noor Ullah and Abdullah Haq, were released and much ransom payed in a swap deal to release the two Frenchman. The money was handed over in the infamous Karkhano smugglers market on the edge of Peshawar, Pakistan.

The Qari Baryal Group is known to operate in the province and throughout central and northeastern Afghanistan. Qari Baryal was a former Hizb-i-Islami insurgent commander who was based in Kapisa province. His network, consisting of approximately 150-200 men, is known to facilitate the movement of weapons, explosives, and would-be suicide bombers from the Pakistan border to Kabul. His group helped plan and coordinate numerous attacks against military bases in Kabul and Parwan provinces, including the sprawling Coalition airbase at Bagram.

Qari Baryal should have been dead long ago. The Taliban commander’s brother, wife and father were killed in a US air strike in 2008. By the time the bombs fell, Baryal, dressed as a shepherd, had slipped away. Today, as factions within the Taliban continue to undermine the peace process engineered by President Ashraf Ghani and bombings strike Kabul, Baryal is unrepentant.(20150811)

Background:
Coalition forces also killed Khairullah Nezami (Khairuddin Nizami) and Qari Ezmarai, both of whom were known Taliban bomb experts, along with four other Taliban fighters during a raid in the Tag Ab district on August 23, 2008. Qari Ezmarai has also been linked to the movement of suicide bombers and foreign terrorists into Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan. Both commanders were active in the restive Jalokhel village area, a hotly contested area of Kapisa province that has been the site of repeated insurgent attacks and Coalition raids.(20080904)